Behind Schumer's Ill Humor
(The Democrats are divided. The Republicans might have been.)
This August 3, 2005 Wall Street Journal, Opinion Journal commentary was written by Manuel Miranda. Mr. Miranda has been a legal consultant to current Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and, prior to that, had worked for Senator Orrin Hatch. The subtitle of this commentary actually does more justice to Mr. Miranda's message than his title does, but a poke at Senator Charles Schumer was probably more than he could resist.
What it is that the Democrats are divided about is the nomination of Judge John Roberts, President Bush's first choice to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy since he took office in 2000. On one side of the divide are the hard-line Liberals who blanch, just on general principles, at the thought of ANY Bush appointee and who apply a Liberal “test” to everything that enters their line-of-sight. On the other side are the moderate Democrats who are hesitant to follow the diehards into this battle because of still fresh memories of their losses in the last two elections. Those losses, in many Democratic minds, fall directly at the feet of Senator Schumer and at the feet of certain ultra-Left lobbying groups who provide inspiration for Senator Schumer.
The Republican majority, on the other hand, has escaped an ideological divide on the Roberts nomination. The split was avoided because of two factors: 1) The general understanding that it is almost always more advantageous to the Republican Party to present a united front and 2) the quality of the nominee. This second point was critical; had President Bush strayed too far from a nominee who was considered acceptable to Republican power brokers the in-fighting might have begun. Very few politicians are so devoted to their party's position that they will neglect to care-take their own careers. Judge Roberts, however, appears to be a near-perfect nominee.